Children's environmental health

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Global environmental change

Large-scale and global environmental hazards to human health include climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, loss of biodiversity, changes in hydrological systems and the supplies of freshwater, land degradation and stresses on food-producing systems. These processes influence the risks of vector-borne diseases, water and food-borne diarrhoea, and malnutrition, which are among the major burdens of disease in the developing world, and are disproportionately concentrated on children. In addition, as environmental degradation acts over a long-term and is potentially irreversible, children have the most to gain from measures to safeguard the integrity of natural ecosystems.

WHO has an active and long-standing programme on protecting health from climate change, guided by a World Health Assembly resolution. As environmental degradation acts over a long-term and is potentially irreversible, children have the most to gain from measures to safeguard the integrity of natural ecosystems.